Mandarin Oriental crowned soccer champs

Congratulations to the Mandarin Oriental, the champions of the Hotel Employees Soccer League! The Mandarin won the title back in September as a result of what was perhaps the closest championship match in Hotel Employee Soccer League history. The game came down to overtime and then penalty kicks, with Raafat Rohaeim scoring the game winner over the Hilton New York.

As expected, it was an evenly played match from the onset. Then Carsten Johannsen one-timed an Adnan Hasanagic feed into the back of the net in the 18th minute, to give the Mandarin a 1-0 lead.

Early in the second half, Arturo Ching scored 2 goals within a span of 6 minutes, the second coming off a beautiful header, to give the Hilton a 2-1 advantage. However with 10 minutes remaining in regulation, Johannsen scored his 2nd goal of the game off a rebound, to notch the game at 2.

Moments later, a Mandarin player picked up his 2nd yellow card of the match, forcing his team to play the remainder of the match a man down, but Richard Brajic and the Mandarin defense held the high flying Hilton squad in check, allowing just 2 shots on goal in both sudden death overtimes to get the game to the penalty kick stage, where they were victorious.

The Mandarin finished the season with a 9-2-1 record, including a 2-1 edge in matches vs, the Hilton this season. In the prior contests, the Hilton was victorious 1-0 early in the season, while Mandarin won the rematch 3-0 two months later.